SA police union welcomes crime intelligence boss Mdluli’s exit

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Thursday welcomed the axing of disgraced crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli who faced numerous allegations of corruption and a murder and kidnapping court case.

“The past six years have been strenuous on the full functioning of this division as it has had 12 acting divisional commissioners, all with different and short-lived directives within their brief stay. This has yielded much confusion, to the detriment of the Crime Intelligence Unit’s integrity and reputation,” the union said in a statement.

“We see this settlement as a renewed move to get the CIU to start delivering on its actual expectations for the national police commissioner and the country at large.”

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced Mdluli’s departure at a briefing on Wednesday. Mbalula said Mdluli was relieved of his position “through a mutual agreement”.

Mdluli had been on suspension for the past six years while earning his salary and bonuses. He and his co-accused Mthembeni Mthunzi are on trial for the alleged 1999 kidnapping and murder of Oupa Ramogibe, husband of Mdluli’s ex-girlfriend Tshidi Buthelezi.

The State alleges that Mdluli and Mthunzi kidnapped Ramogibe soon after he married Buthelezi and moved in with her. At the time, Mdluli was the station commander at the Vosloorus police station in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.

He was accused of sabotaging the investigation into Ramogibe’s murder. Buthelezi died in 2003 after an illness. In November 2012, an inquest into the killing of Ramogibe cleared Mdluli of any involvement in the murder. The charges were withdrawn, but were later reinstated.